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Getting Rid of Fleas is a Problem!
Fleas can be a problem in the home, especially if you have cats or dogs. They may be difficult to see, being very small, but their bites are certainly easy to feel! Fleas from your pets will also start to live – and breed – on and in your soft furnishings, and can be very difficult to get rid of. Indeed, the only real way to rid the home of fleas is to use a flea room fogger.
How does a flea fogger work? It’s quite simple: you use a ‘bomb’ which contains a selection of chemicals – more on those later – and set it off in the room and leave it. It kills the fleas, and many other insects too. The problems with some is that they use quite nasty chemicals, and they may not guarantee to destroy eggs that are ready to hatch.
In the following article we have picked out 10 of the best flea flogger UK products on the market, and we will be recommending one or more to you at the end as our choice, but before we get into things, we feel it necessary to talk about some of the ingredients in these products.
How It Works – and What’s In a Flea Fogger?
Flea foggers use a series of chemicals to kill fleas. In effect, they are household insecticides. One ingredient of flea foggers is called Permethrin. This is, overall, a safe and effective chemical that is also used on humans to treat lice. However, in agriculture, it’s use on crops – which is not uncommon – is controversial as, thanks to its very nature, it will kill all insects it comes into contact with including honeybees. Permethrin is passed by all the regulatory bodies for use as pest control.
Another powerful and common ingredient in foggers is s-methoprene. This is a widely-used pesticide that, if you come in contact with it, may cause skin irritation. It may also have harmful effects on cats, dogs and other animals, so you must make sure your pets are kept out of the area being treated for the time recommended by the manufacturers, and you also stay away for that allotted time.
Pyriproxyfen is also found in many flea elimination products, and is useful as it will help kill the eggs thanks to interrupting the biological cycle. It is not harmful to humans or animals in the small amounts found in the products that follow.
There is no getting away from the fact that fleas, as very hardy and resilient creatures, require powerful treatments to successfully eliminate them, so it is essential that chemicals such as those above will be found in these products. All of those on our list are passed as safe for home use by the relevant regulatory bodies, and we remind you to follow the instructions exactly as they are stated. So, let’s check out our ten chosen products.
The Top 10
1. 3x Johnson’s Veterinary Flea Killer
First on our list comes from Johnson’s, a major brand in the world of pet and household products, and it is a pack of three. As each of the three contains two ‘bombs’ you can theoretically treat six rooms, and remember, fleas don’t just settle in one room, they get everywhere! Each can treats up to 320ft² – that’s a fair sized room – and it’s simple to use: just set it off, close the door and leave it.
This one claims to prevent eggs from hatching, which is something you definitely want, and uses the usual pesticides as described above. It is long lasting, providing 7-months protection, and is a sensible price. With over 220 reviews – 60% of them 5-star – we reckon this a good product, but 15% gave it only 1-star, as it didn’t work. We suspect this is going to be a running theme – works for some, ad doesn’t for others.
2. Rentokil FI65 Insect Killer
There is no bigger name in pest control than Rentokil, so we expected this product to come highly recommended by satisfied users. More of that in a moment! It’s a standard type of flea killer using permethrin as the main active ingredient – all good there, then – ad comes in a pack of two bombs that are ‘enough for two rooms’ though no area is given in the makers description.
There’s nothing special apart from the brand, which as we said is respected, and while there are more than 460 reviews of this product form customers, we were a little concerned to find that around 160 of them gave this item 3-stars of under, with almost a hundred rating it a single star. The reason? Almost all of them complain it didn’t work, which contrasts sharply with the couple of hundred who are now flea-free.
3. Beaphar Extra Long Lasting Fogger
This example of a household flea fogger, from Beaphar, claims to treat the room for up to six months. It also claims to treat all the stages of the insects life, so that includes preventing eggs from hatching. This is an absolute must with a product such as this, as if it does not do so, the eggs will hatch, you have a new batch of fleas, and you just have to start over again.
This is a single bomb – it’s an other easy to use product and you simply follow the instructions on the packaging – and can cover 25m² which is a decent-sized room, but does it work? 60% of users gave it 4-stars and above, but a worrying 40% ranked it very poor. Once again, it didn’t work for some, but it did for others. Notably it is quite cheap.
4. Ardap 2-Pack Flea Fogger
This German-made product comes as a 2-pack, which is handy, and includes all of the usual ingredients designed to kill adult fleas and prevent eggs from hatching. So far, so good, as that’s exactly what you want. It promises to prevent fleas n the home for as long as six months, which appears to be the standard time that one of these will act for, and each bomb can deal with a 30m² room.
This one is bang in the expected price range for a twin-pack one of these and is fairly popular with more than 60 buyers having posted comments. Almost 80% of those commenting gave it 4-stars or above. The vast majority of the rest said that – yes, you’ve guessed – it didn’t work! We are becoming curious about this as, we are sure you have noticed, it is not exclusive to this model that it works for some and not for others. We suspect there may be some other aspect of how and when the product was used influencing this, as clearly, they do kill fleas, at least in some instances!
5. Insecto Mini Smoke Bombs
This six pack of ‘mini’ smoke bombs from Insecto comes with all the right ingredients, and although we are told that each bomb is 3.5g, that doesn’t give us much information as to what size of a room these will treat. We will assume that it’s an average size of room in a typical home, and take it from there. It’s said to be effective on a wide variety of insects, so on the face of it things look good.
We would say they must be doing something right as there are almost 300 customer reviews of this product. However, 45% of those give these smoke bombs a 3-star score or under. Complaints include the usually ‘completely useless’, a lingering smell for days afterwards, and one user said they found a lot of dead insects but the fleas lived through. Also a good tip from one dissatisfied customer – before you use a product such as this alert your neighbours, and one of theirs saw the smoke and called the fire brigade!
6. Pest Expert Flea Killer
Another 6 pack and around the same size as those above, it is claimed that one of these will clear a room of 30m² so that’s promising. This one is adamant in explaining that it has been rigorously tested by the Health and Safety Executive, which is good to know, and that it is approved and licensed by the government. We believe that every single item on our list is legally approved for use in the home.
So, does it work? Unsurprisingly, it’s the usual story. Out of almost 100 customer comments, 55% gave this flea bomb a 5-star review, so clearly it does do what it says on the tin – just not every time! Almost 30% gave it a single star, with complaints being the product is ‘useless’, one that only two out of the six bombs would light, and one saying that using this served only to ‘p*ss off the fleas and make them really aggressive’.
7. Critterkill 15g Professional Strength
This 4-pack of flea bombs from Critterkill – the name says it all – appears to be the one that, on paper, may do the business. Each bomb contains 15g of permethrin as the active ingredient and promises to clear a large area. They also claim that this product was previously only available for commercial use, and has recently been made available to the public. All the credentials are there, it’s easy to use, and while not the cheapest it is not expensive.
It is interesting to note that the makers are keen to state that ‘further treatment may be necessary’. This implies that even with as strong a product as this, one treatment might not be enough, which could explain why many customers on each of these products are not seeing the job done – just angry fleas. More than 60% of customers gave this a 5-star rating, which is a good result for one of these products, while 25% say it didn’t work, so it’s the usual story but at a more acceptable ratio.
8. Ardap 200ml Flea Fumigator
This is a single pack version of the previous Ardap product, and includes all of the usual ingredients designed to kill adult fleas and prevent eggs from hatching. So far, so good, as that’s exactly what you want. It promises to prevent fleas n the home for as long as six months, which appears to be the standard time that one of these will act for, and each bomb can deal with a 30m² room.
This one is not cheap as you can get a four-pack of a different brand for around the same price, but neither is it particularly expensive for this type of product. However, what is interesting is this: of 35 customers who have commented on this product, some 97% gave it 4-stars or above. That is by far the best result we’ve seen on any of these products. For the record, the one customer who gave it a single star – there were no 2 or 3 star ratings – said the fleas came back after two days.
9. Group 55 Ltd Strikeback Flea Fogger
This twin-pack, from Group 55, makes all the usual claims to kill fleas in the home and prevent the eggs from hatching. It includes all the usual ingredients and is easy to use, being the standard sort of flea fogger – set it off and leave it to do the job.
However, we don’t have a great deal of information on it such as the area it covers and so on, and we think it a relatively new product on the market as there are so far only two customer reviews. Both, however, are 5-star ratings, so it works. If that’s enough for you, you might become satisfied customer number three!
10. Pest Stop Fumite Insect Killer
Our final selection is this one from the aptly-named Pest Stop, and it’s another of the 3.5g examples. It comes as a single item – that’s just one bomb – but it is very cheap: you can buy two of these for a fiver. It has all the right ingredients, and makes all the usual claims, and claims to cover 30m² area for flea-killing, and will also kill flying insects over a 120m² area. The usual question – does it work?
At least one satisfied customer reported it handily got rid of an infestation of flies from the loft, but it seems less than satisfactory where fleas are concerned. 100 customers have left comments on this product, and out of those, 40 said it was worth 5-stars and did the job. 35% said it was useless, and the rest were not entirely satisfied with it. The verdict is this: if you want to try a flea bomb and see if it works, this one is cheap enough as the ingredients are the same as just about every other one.
So, that’s our ten flea foggers for you, but which ones work and which don’t? Let’s recap on some of the factors to look for when choosing the best household flea fogger.
Buying Guide – What to Look For
We have researched all of the above to try and find out which flea fogger works best. What we found – as you have read – is that it is difficult to find one that has a suitably high success rate (apart from one that stands out, which we will come to in a moment).
None of these has a 100% success rate, and some have complaints from a great proportion of customers saying their flea fogger simply did not work: they did as the instructions said, waited the allotted time, and still had fleas – even angry ones.
It is perhaps best to say that, with this sort of product, it may be that more than one treatment is needed to ensure success. We say this because, while every single item had some dissatisfied customers, they all have a proportion – of varying levels – who gave the product 5-stars and were happily flea-free after use.
In essence, apart from the amount of contents in each bomb and the number of bombs you get for your money, each of these products is the same thing, with very similar ingredients and similar design. Yet, we can easily choose the one we would recommend, and explain why.
Before we do, a reminder: make sure all pets are clear of the area and that the room you are fogging has been sealed as best as possible, do follow the instructions absolutely as they are written, stay away from the area for the stated time, and let your neighbours know that your house is not on fire if you are going out while the process takes place!
So, let’s try and wrap things up!
Our Choice
Having read our reviews, you most likely know which one we are going to recommend: the Ardap 200ml Flea Fumigator. It may be a single-pack item – you can buy it in multiples – and it may also be one of the more expensive, but with a 97% record of success with customers, it is far and away the best product on this list.
Buy a different one if you wish – after all the price is yours – but we simply can’t get away from that level of reliability from what is a list of products that are not as effective, statistically, as we had expected.
